txtlit.co.uk - The UK's Easiest to Enter Writing Competitions

She denied stealing the shoes, though witnesses had seen her attempt to secrete the red, shiny stilettos. A victim of fashion, the evidence was patent.

August 2015 Competition

For August your competition theme is "The Queue".We're sure to have writers queuing up to write a story of 154 characters or less, preceded by the STORY and then sent as a text to 82085. Cost £1

September 2015 Competition

Your September competition theme will be announced at the end of August. Make sure you come back to see what it will be and to find out who has won July's competition.

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Competition Results

Results are published Below. Make sure you check back regularly to get the latest competiton news and themes.

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Remember, whilst the act of entring the competitions is easy, writing a compelling story in just 154 characters takes some doing, but it's excellent writing practice and makes for good disciplined writing.

All competitions cost £1 per entry plus the cost of a standard text message from your mobile phone service provider.

July 2012 Competition: Theme - Trouble

Winning Entry:

Skidding to a halt one step too late he grappled. China leapt from his grasp, like the elusive bath soap. There it lay, a porcelain jigsaw on the floor.

Well done Hannah Barratt from Cambridgeshire who wins our July competition themed 'Trouble'. Having three small children, she probably has enough trouble of her own. Hannah loves her part time job as a cardiac nurse where she tells us she gets to meet the most amazing characters. She has always loved writing but has only recently started thinking about doing something more with it. With her youngest child approaching four she finally gets the odd moment when her brain is not completely addled and she can focus her thoughts on writing. Sounds like Txtlit is a perfect solution for Hannah.

The summer months are traditionally quieter for competition entries, presumably because people are on holiday and out of the country, but a lower than usual entry rate didn't affect the quality of the stories we received for July's competition. For our 'Trouble' themed competition, this entry from Hannah Barratt was the eventual winner because we loved the imagery that was built around an almost classic scenario. The fact that our protagonist has skidded to a halt tells us he was travelling too fast. The simile of the elusive bath soap allows us to clearly visualise our character fumbling with what we assume to be a vase, knocked from a stand or a shelf above a polished wooden floor. No twists or turns in this story but the lovely description of the 'porcelain jigsaw' to describe the broken vase tells us exactly what has happened and again adds to the visualisation. Although the theme isn't directly referred to we can almost hear the words."I'm in trouble".

I wait in the dark. Each minute passes with slow deliberation. I watch her leave her house. I follow. Once chosen, she never had a chance.

By Richard Brenton

Thrown from the vessel by the wave, Jan knew that she had scant moments to tell her spouse of 37 years how she felt. Texting frantically, she sent "IH8U."

By Clive Owen from Leeds

June 2012 Competition: Theme - The Toy

Winning Entry:

It sprung and nipped my hands. It was the most enchanting toy ever. Procrastination poisoned my mind as the elastic band grew fascinating forevermore.

Congratulations to Helen Stewart from Perthshire, Scotland who wins our June Competition. Helen, who lives on a farm outside Pitlochry tells us she is passionate about the arts. She loves writing creatively and painting just as a getaway from everyday life. Currently Helen is waiting nervously for her Higher exam results so she has welcomed the opportunity to be able to relax whilst remaining constructive. Writing has always meant a lot to Helen and it came as a complete surprise to find she had won her first competition whcih she finds very encouraging and has confirmed her hopes of studying English in the future.

We had a lot of high quality and diverse entries for June which made the judging decision that much more difficult, but we settled on this entry by Helen Stewart as the worthy winner. This story is an excellent construction. The first sentence gives us plenty to draw us in and raise our curiosity whilst giving nothing away. We learn a little more in the second sentence and the word 'enchanting' is well placed and throws a further dimension into the story as we wait to learn what the toy is. 'Procrastination poisoned my mind' is a terrific phrase, and when it's revealed that the protagonist is merely fiddling with an elastic band we are filled with empathy. Who hasn't been spontaneously enthralled by the most insignificant of objects and become lost in playing, pushing whatever it was we should have been doing away to the side. Nice use of alliteration too. It's good to see that literary devices can still be incorporated in such a short piece of work like a Txtlit story.

Other Shortlisted Entries:

The blow sent him flying. He hid in a ditch, but was caught and brought back for more punishment. How he dreaded those words: "Rolo, fetch the ball!"

By Doreen Doherty

God gazed down on the Earth and raised the temperature by a few more degrees. He loved the humans and their self-important ideas about 'global warming'.

By By David Bradshaw from Bolton

'Open it', said the Wizard handing him the small box. 'Why can't you do it?' asked Max. 'Because it has to be a child, go on there might be a toy inside.'

By Sally Armstrong

And the best of the stories with an adult flavour...

She'd bought the present herself, she had to do everything for herself these days. Licking her lips in anticipation, she unwrapped her Rampant Rabbit.

By Val Fish from Peterborough

May 2012 Competition: Theme - The Final Straw

Winning Entry:

Porky put the finishing touches to his house. His brothers had been fools to stick to boring wood or brick; this was much better. Mr. Wolf thought so too.

Congratulations for her second Txtlit competition win to Chloe Banks from Devon. Chloe last won back in March 2009 and has had a few runners up entries since then. 25 year old Chloe tells us that Txtlit was the first writing competition she ever won. Since then she has been concentrating on writing more and more has won a handful of other competitions - both flash fiction and full short stories. She now spends most of her time writing and has written a children's novel which she is trying to get published (along with most of the rest of the world it seems!) and is currently working on a novel for adults. She enjoys the different challenges different length fiction provides and loves the way Txtlit is so different from writing a novel, making you, asChloe puts it, think about things sideways! She loves to talk to other writers and has a blog for this purpose: madebythepotter.blogspot.co.uk . She also has a website wordsyourway.co.uk

May's winning entry from Chloe Banks employs a a technique we haven't seen for a while which is to use a character or characters we already know to tell part of the story. Here of course, the story of the Three Little Pigs has been used, which is probably known by just about everybody, and gives us our background. As the story plays out we are able to work out the who Porky is and by process of elimination that his is the house of straw. We know the conclusion, but this is merely alluded to in the final sentence when the wolf's character is introduced, and which also gives the story away if you haven't already got it by now. We like the way this story works as a story within a story as what we are actually being told about is one pig's arrogance in thinking he knows best but will tragically proved to be be wrong. We also liked how the story related to the competition theme as the finishing touches to a house of straw would indeed be the final straw. Nicely done.

Other Shortlisted Entries:

The dynasty is over. The empire in ruins, no heir apparent, in the end police found the bodies in the basement. A gun sounds, suicide for James Straw.

By Joseff Morgan

Sam drew the final straw. It was the smallest. The others breathed a sigh of relief. Sam knew this would handicap him in the drinking contest.

By Angela Greenwood

Camel lay dejected on the sand as the vets hurried round him with a spinal board. "I did warn them this would happen," he said. "They never listen."

Aslo by Chloe Banks, Devon

April Competiiton - Theme: Blue

Winning Entry:

As she stared into his deep blue eyes, she knew that he was 'the one.' Identity parade over, she then left the police station.

The winner of our April competition is Helen Keeling from Hook, Hampsire. A statistician by day, outside of work Helen is an avid sports fan, enjoying a range of different activities - the more extreme the better. She fuses her love of sport with her love of writing and writes for a number of well-known sports magazines. She also enjoys having a dabble at creative writing and is thrilled to have won this month's Txtlit competition. We caught Helen at a very busy time - she's currently attempting to both move house and plan a warship wedding, whilst also trying to spend as much time as possible with her newborn baby nephew, Harry.

A simple story with a simple twist from Helen Keeling wins our April competition, the theme for which was 'Blue.' We didn't mind how you used the theme in your entries, provided your story mentioned or alluded to it. Some of you even chose Smurfs as your Blue reference. In Helen's story it is the deep blue eyes that our protaganist stares into that is the link. Through cliche, Helen leads us to believe that her protaganist is staring longingly into the eyes of a loved one or of someone whom she believes to be her perfect match. We realise however that the eyes belong to the perpetrator of a crime, and this is on fact an identity parade. We do not know the crime, but as our protaganist has too look into the eyes of the perpetrator to identify him, there is a sinister feel to what it might be. The final few words regarding the police station are somewhat superfluous as the the reveal of the identity parade is sufficient, but otherwise a classic Txtlit story.

Other Shortlisted Entries:

Undressing that evening, my wife joked that the decorator 'looked like a Smurf when he was done'. That's when I saw the blue thumbprint on her bra strap.

By Kevin Mannion

Our science teacher drops her scalpel and clutches the desk. The blood oozing from the dissected frog is not red. This prince never got kissed.

By Lorna Wilkinson

"If that really is your favourite colour, then I have just the football club for you Mr Abramovich".

By Chris Wilson

March 2012 Competition: Theme - Continue "So what's it going to be then eh?"

Winning Entry:

'What's it going to be then eh?' The vials gleamed, poison and antidote indistinguishable. Head pounding, stomach twisting, sweat dripping, she sealed her fate. 'Two tequilas!'

Congratulations to Joanna Thompson from Bouroughbridge in North Yorkshire who wins our March competition. Joanna is just 18 years old and is currently studying for her A-levels. She plans to go to the University of East Anglia next year to study English Literature and Creative Writing. Joanna has entered our Txtlit competitions several times and has previously had a shortlisted entry in November 2010, but tells us how excited she is to have won. She finds writing very competitive and so winning our March competition has reassured her that she is not completely unsuited to her course for next year. Joanna tells us that she likes the accessibility of Txtlit so we're look forward to more entries from her whilst she's away at university.

March's competition was one of our 'continue' type competitions where we ask you to continue the opening line from a famous novel. On this occasion we asked you to continue the opening line from A Clockwork Orange. To remind you, the opening line is merely a platform from which to launch your story and we encourage originality and creativity thereafter. We like Joanna Thompson's entry best because it had our attention immediately as we are thrown into a dilemma. Clearly a choice is to be made that could be the difference between life and death. As we read on we discover that our protagonist is already in some discomfort and has to make the right choice to save herself. Has she already taken some poison and now has to choose the antidote? What if she makes the wrong choice...? But no. The "Two Tequilas" reveal that we are looking at a hair of the dog. The fact that the Tequila is both poison and antidote in this story is cleverly applied, and we're treated to a classic twist. Well done Joanna.

Other Shortlisted Entries:

'What's it going to be then eh?' She shivered in the cold, contemplating the thought of what was to come. Slowly, she slid into the car. She didn't look at him as they drove in the dark.

Awaiting Author's details

'What's it going to be then eh?' 'Take the money and run? Or stick it out, fight, and risk losing everything.' 'Fight. All the way' she said and picked up the phone to her solicitor.

By Debbie Thomas

'What's it going to be then eh?' came the whisper. Sweaty fingers gripped the cliff edge - fingers that had squeezed the life from my world. "I was never here," I replied. I walked away.